Expansion underway for Mills James Cleveland media operations

Mills James is in the final construction stages of its new studios and media production operations in Cleveland. The creative media company entered the Cleveland market in 2013 with new production facilities and offices in the historic Bradley Building at 1228 West 6th Street in the Warehouse District. When additional space became available in the building earlier this year, Mills James’ engineers began designing a relocated and expanded facility with significant new capabilities.

Scott Lanum, Vice President of Video and Broadcast, said, “Cleveland has been a strong market for us with its rebounding economy and robust corporate and health care sectors. Our facilities are optimized for newsfeeds, and there’s a lot of news originating in the northeast Ohio region – especially with the upcoming Republican National Convention in Cleveland.”

Mills James and Ohio Lottery entrance

The Ohio Lottery’s daily drawings will originate from a dedicated street-level studio at Mills James Cleveland.

Liveshot studios

Mills James’ expanded Cleveland facilities include two liveshot studios so newsmakers can make live appearances on the national television networks.

Lanum said the new facility will be located on the first floor of the Bradley Building with its own entrance off the street. The expanded 6,000 square foot facility will offer services including studio production in two liveshot studios and an insert stage. These liveshot studios provide direct-to-the-networks video feeds via LTN, Vyvx and The Switch. Location video crews have the capability to go live from anywhere with LiveU bonded cellular technology.

Other offerings include location crews, production management, scripting, producing, directing, editing, motion graphics, 3D animation and closed captioning. The Cleveland facility is connected to Mills James’ main Columbus facility via a 300 mbps private ethernet line. This enables the newly-added suites to scale up with additional resources from Columbus and vise-versa. The two operations will function as if they are right next door, not 150 miles apart.

The facility also includes a dedicated studio forthe Ohio Lottery, which has been televising its daily drawings from Mills James’ Cleveland studios for the last three years. Live evening drawings include Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Rolling Cash 5 and Classic Lotto, which are telecast live from Mills James facilities in high definition and transmitted to carrier stations throughout the state via digital optical fiber and satellite technology.

The facility expansion will also require additional staffing, and an account services manager will join the recent addition of a motion graphic designer to the Cleveland media production team in the near future.

The Bradley Building, which dates from 1886 and was the work of famed Cleveland architects Cudell & Richardson, now is a mixed-use property with a distinctive red-clay exterior and signature arched windows. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mills James is one of the nation’s largest creative media production firms. Headquartered in Columbus with offices and production facilities in Cincinnati and Cleveland, the employee-owned company provides creative media solutions to a wide range of advertising, broadcast and corporate clients, including many Fortune 500 corporations.